Looking Back at Topps Baseball Cards During the Wild 1970's:
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Tuesday, July 18, 2017

MAJOR LEAGUE FOUNDERS: CHARLIE GOULD 1876-1976

The
next “founding” player of professional baseball is Charlie Gould, the
only Cincinnati-born player who was on the famed 1869 Red Stockings team
who went undefeated over 84 games and was credited as being the first
fully professional team put together:

Gould actually began his baseball career in 1863 with a local club, the
“Buckeyes”, for whom he’d play through the 1867 before “jumping” to the
Red Stocking to assume their first base position the following year.
He’d be a Red Stocking for three seasons, spanning their winning
campaigns against all comers, before moving on to the Boston Red
Stockings with his Cincinnati teammates in the newly formed National
Association.
By then he was considered one of the better defensive players in the
game, a game that was still a bare-handed sport, a reputation that
stayed with him through his playing days well in the Major Leagues when
formed in 1876.
He’d end up playing the first two seasons of the new professional
league, finishing up his playing career in 1877 after only 24 games
played for the Reds, by then a second-division team far from their glory
days.
All in all, he finished a six-year pro career, and a 15-year organized
career well-regarded and part of some big-time history for the
burgeoning sport before becoming a police officer in Cincinnati, passing
away at the age of 69 in 1917.